Flames 2018 draft: A closer look at Martin Pospisil

The Flames didn’t have many draft picks, and didn’t have many high quality picks. Accordingly, when they came up to pick, they couldn’t find many guys who put up high numbers.

Except for Martin Pospisil (POS-peh-sil). He puts up big numbers. This past season, the 6’2″, 172 lb. USHL centre/left winger picked up 253 penalty minutes in 49 games, far and away the USHL’s leader in that category, and perhaps the leader in the whole 2018 draft class. It may not be the big numbers people typically like from prospects, but they’re still big numbers.

But the Flames didn’t pick a goon in Pospisil. He does put up numbers, they’re just a bit harder to see. There are some scoring numbers below the surface that get ignored for his penalty minutes which could make Pospisil an interesting draft prospect.

Numbers and such

GP

G

A

P

Primary Points

5v5 points

5v5 primary points

NHLe

USHL

49

8

29

37

24

24

18

17.34

Pospisil began the season pretty slow, only picking up five points in his first 16 games, and only getting his first goal in game 19. Part of that is likely due to him just arriving from the Austrian minor leagues that season. Shortly after, he found his footing and started getting much better. He picked up 21 points in 13 games in the middle of the season, and finished the year with nine in his last 10 games.

The most impressive aspect of Pospisil’s game is just how important he is to Sioux City’s offence. Pospisil contributed on 30.61% of all Sioux City goals and 24.70% of all 5v5 goals. Those are extremely strong numbers for any player in any junior league, nevermind a rookie with no prior North American experience. Those numbers do drop to 19.33% (all situations) and 18.52% (5v5) when you only consider primary contributions, however.

Pospisil also looks good when compared to the rest of the USHL draft class. Out of the 59 USHL draft eligible players who played at least 10 games, Pospisil finished 14th in points per game and 19th in primary points per game. When looking at 5v5 scoring exclusively, he jumps to seventh in P/GP, and 10th in P1/GP. If you factor in estimated time on ice, he’s eighth in both estimated 5v5 P/GP and P1/GP. The USHL is a bit further behind than the CHL in terms of talent, but these numbers are nothing to slouch at.

Given that most of his competition ahead of him is from the U.S. National Development Team, Pospisil has some great numbers for the average USHL player.

The rapsheet

So 253 penalty minutes is a pretty high number. That’s almost four and one-third of games’ worth of penalty box time. Let’s talk about that.

Pospisil fancies himself a tough guy, which is fine if you’re productive enough (he is close), but he takes a large amount of penalties in doing so, more so than your average pest. He picked up 88 minutes in minors penalties throughout the season (the majority of them being roughing calls) which is near the top of the PIMs pack for the USHL when you only consider minors.

The rest of Pospisil’s penalty minutes come from majors and misconducts Here’s how it breaks down:

Penalty type

Why

Total minutes served

Major

Fighting (x3)

Charging

Boarding

25 minutes

Misconduct

Fighting (x3)

Charging

Abuse of official

Boarding

Checking from behind

Removal of helmet

Unsportsmanlike conduct

Undefined (x4)*

130 minutes

Game ejection

Aggressor in a fight

Fighting (Misconduct in addition to ejection)

Charging

Abuse of official (Misconduct in addition to ejection)

Roughing minor

Boarding

Removal of helmet

20 minutes

Suspension

Charging – 2 games

Instigator – 2 games (same incident as the charge)

Removal of helmet – 1 game

Boarding – 1 game

Misconduct accumulation – 1 game

Charging – 2 games

9 games

* Pospisil was assessed two misconducts immediately following double majors for roughing and another after a roughing minor. No explanation given otherwise.

The majority of his penalty minutes come from majors and misconducts, mostly fighting related. A part of that number is inflated by the rules of the USHL. If you play by NHL rules and remove the automatic fighting/charging misconducts in the USHL while assuming the rest were earned, at least 70 minutes are subtracted, but 105 PIMS is still a substantial figure.

You can spin that as both good and bad. Imagine how many points Pospisil would’ve put up had he not been kicked out so often. Despite being the estimated leading 5v5 points per 60 scorer on the Musketeers, Pospisil finished sixth in estimated time on ice, likely because of his frequent visits to the penalty box. He was booted from five games with more than 20 minutes left, and once in the first period. If Pospisil had stuck around, you wonder how much larger his stat line could’ve been.

The bad is quite obvious and certainly the bigger concern. Pospisil is a hothead and puts his team at a disadvantage by constantly being kicked out of games. The story of Pospisil, as it appears in the box scores, is that he will often escalate a post-whistle scrum into something more serious, often packaging it with a major or a misconduct. He racked up 175 PIMs and nine games in the press box because of his temper. Undisciplined play isn’t going to get him very far in his professional career, and it’s not a trait that can be easily taught out of the game.

Perhaps the USHL games are called more strictly than your average hockey game, but Pospisil’s criminal hockey record indicates that he should probably work on reducing the infractions. He’s depriving his team of a legitimate scorer whenever he goes off the rails.

Final thoughts

Pospisil is heading back to Sioux City for another year in the USHL before heading to St. Lawrence University for the 2019-20 season. He’s certainly a work in progress, but there are some promising signs that he can maybe be something more than a PIMs machine.

If he cleans up his act (not to make a direct comparison to Matthew Tkachuk, but if Pospisil learns where exactly the line is and how to come close to it without crossing it, that’s also acceptable) he could be one to look out for.

“Pospisil is heading back to Sioux City for another year in the USHL before heading to St. Lawrence University for the 2019-20 season.”

We drafted someone who isn’t even good enough to be a Freshman at a very mediocre NCAA program in their nineteen year old season, over players like Aidan Dudas and Cole Fonstad who are already at a point per game in the CHL and are only entering there eighteen year old seasons. “Truculence” in drafting really worked out last time when we took Hunter Smith, Brandon Hickey over Brayden Point. Hope this doesn’t bite us in the a** again.

Yeah, I understand it’s just the fourth round and if value picks like Aidan Dudas, Cole Fonstad and Xavier Bernard weren’t still on the board I wouldn’t mind it at all, it’s just that there were a couple of players who fell to us who offered second round value when we took this kid.

Plus didn’t we just trade away Dougie Hamilton because he took too many penalties and then we draft this kid? I don’t get this pick. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind our other picks this year, but we really reached for this kid with Aidan Dudas, Cole Fonstad, Xavier Bernard, etc still on the board.

Demetrios Koumontzis, Milos Roman, Mathias Emilio Pettersen and Dmitri Zavgorodny were good value picks though, so I can’t complain too much, but Aidan Dudas is a legitimate Top. 50 talent that we passed on and I believe Cole Fonstad is as well. Time will tell and no one will remember when I said this regardless, so who cares. I hope this kid proves me wrong, Hahah

The thing I really question about him going back to the USHL is why didn’t the Flames just get a team to draft him in the CHL Import Draft and he could report there? The ECAC is not really a league you want fighters going to, he’ll be suspended every week. Hahah.

This is the first time I’ve heard anything about him going back to the Sioux. Both Future Considerations and The Hockey Prospect have him going to St. Lawrence next year, but that may have changed. He is Slovenian and therefore his English may require upgrading before the school will allow him in. As for any Hunter Smith comparisons, Pospisil has an explosive first step and high end speed, Smith took a zone to get going to below average speed. I like this project and think that his snapping point can get reeled in. Tenacity, speed and skill with a frame he can grow into in college are a great combo in the fourth round.

team toughness is still a problem with this team..hope bt can find some one..remember last year when a certain oiler roughed up our captain then threw punches at our goalie……that should” never” happen again

would like to see a draft where we have a pick in each round, and maybe more…
Man looking back at the 2013 draft how was the staff all not fired after it, IGGy return flop, JayBo return Flop, and then we trade for Mike Cammalleri and Dennis Wideman… oh man that Hurts… But we got Sean , Lazer and Lindholm…

The GM from the time period WAS fired. They did draft Monahan that year though. And Jankowski is Feasters revenge! Don’t forget that we sent Rene Bourque to the Habs for Camalleri and regardless of what Cammi did that was a win. Addition by subtraction. Wideman was fun the year he had all those goals but he was not agreat skater or defender.

2014 98% better then 2013 Draft we had 3 1st round picks and iggy and Jaybo was traded away for bags of Pucks,
That was step one in the start of this Rebuild.. and man that Hurts But yeah 2014 was just bad,

I’m a glass half full type. We got Monahan. Who knew the Pourier kid had the same problems, McGratten, Ferland and a hundred other players have fought through. I will always agree though, that because Feaster never played he just couldn’t be the “buck stops here” guy. I think GMs who played do better. The Flames have done exceptionally well in a lot of later rounds and that makes up for a lot. We finally got the center and LW we always tried to get but couldn’t get, when Jarome was here. Couldn’t find Jarome a center and now we have depth at the position.

Poirier did get rave reviews out of junior. Klimchuk was a great junior with really solid production numbers and I still maintain that out of all of our prospects from the last 5 years he has gotten the rawest deal in terms of callups and getting a fair look